What non-native animal would you really really really like to introduce into your local habitat ?
Environment be damned or don't be damned. Because you like them or because you don't like your neighbors ... what animals would you like to see locally that are not there ?
Can confirm ... and once they know what a human is, that it is tasty, that it is weak, that it is vulnerable without weapons .. it will chase after people like a dog chasing squirrels.
Without taking into account the environmental impact and viability: Sicilian dwarf elephants. Come on, 1m short elephants, hairier (i.e. fluffier) than their African and Asian counterparts? I want it!
Bonus points: capybaras are native where I live, and a common occurrence in parks. Now imagine those small elephants, plus some capybaras: chilling under the grey sky, taking a bath in the lake in warmer days, gathering together in colder days... come on, it's cuteness overload!
In the case of those dwarf elephants it's because they were smaller, so they got a bigger surface area per weight, and lost heat faster. Perhaps also because, while Sicily is hot in comparison with continental Europe, it's still colder than Southeast Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa.
[I know that you're joking, sorry for the serious answer.]
I would love to have a pet capybara, so a local source of wild capybaras would be cool. Also some orangutans. I'm in Utah, so it should probably be fine.
In Minnesota... bison. Because it was their native habitat before we killed them all, and because watching jackasses in cars trying to negotiate with 1500lb bison everywhere would be hilarious.
Agreed, also I don't think there's enough here to fuck around and find out with. The scariest animal I've had to deal with up here is my neighbors always angry papillon getting loose. There's a thrill about seeing an enormous reptile staring lazily at you from an apartment retention pond, I bet bison would be fun too.
Monkeys. Several species, but specifically pygmy marmosets. What I really want is Borrowers, but since the scientific community refuses to focus research on the actually important things, it feels unlikely in my lifetime. So pygmy marmosets. I want to walk onto my porch, and a troop of teeny little monkeys is chilling out there, living their best lives.
"Why would you keep those dreadful things?" - my wife's Irish grandmother when we told her we have a hedgehog. Apparently they're a big pest for gardeners.
Pangolins! I'm not sure how well they'd survive in Texas, but if they find fire ants tasty, they might be able to make a dent in the population (they're invasive themselves). Also, being present on another continent might help ensure their survival, especially the species currently critically endangered.
Edit: if they don't have to be extant, then troodontids! They were supposedly smart little raptors. I bet they'd make great pets c:
Cassowary. Giant dinosaur bird that will lunge at you get first with razor sharp talons. But looks cool and prehistoric. One of the few creatures that terrify zoo keepers as they are smart enough to be evil but not smart enough to be tamed
I have a mating pair of foxes that live right next to my house in a small unmaintained area. I spot them pretty regularly in the early morning and it's kind of a fun treat. They nab a lot of bunnies from my yard.
They're not anywhere near my favorite animal, but if dolphins could survive in freshwater, it would be interesting to hear about all the interactions people have with them near me considering people have re-learned they have a language, even if it's more like 50,000-BCE-human-levels of communication. If any were integrated, I wouldn't mind going the extra mile to treat them as anyone else and anticipate them showing up.
Yeah but I mean bottlenose ones. They're the ones which are being studied, the other species are to bottlenose dolphins what other apes are to humans. If you put a bottlenose dolphin in freshwater, they get all wrinkly before dying due to saltwater having the chemical properties they need.